Sharpest Tools in the Shed: A Review of Camillus Knives

We’ve talked about all the different types of cutting tools and how to properly care for them. Today we are doing a review, but we’re shaking things up a bit. Today’s view will be done in video form! Click here and here to watch. I will be talking about a brand of cutting tools that is one of my personal favorites; Camillus knives. I will be talking about six pieces of Camillus equipment today.

First we will be talking about the Camillus Trench, a Swiss Army Knife like tool which I spent about $15 on at Walmart.com. Its attachments include a 3” knife blade, a can opener which is oddly enough not sharp at all, a bottle opener which doubles as a Phillips head screwdriver, and an awl which is eyeless. I do not like the eyeless awl because you can’t use it to sew with. It also has a metal strap on the back which you can put a piece of wood through and create a spear. It has a metal scaled handle which is good for keeping a grip. In field testing, I know right away that this knife will not strike a ferro rod because the knife is not locked into place. You could actually cut your hand trying to strike the rod so I would not recommend it. When woodworking, this knife debarks the wood very well. It is not so good for taking off large chunks of material at a time, but it could get the job done. It was also able to form some nice curls in the wood. Testing out some of the attachments on this tool, I tried the can opener which was pretty easy to work with despite the fact that it is not sharp. It took me about one full minute to open a can of food. Next I tried out the awl. It took it a bit longer and a bit more work than I would have liked to get it to make a hole in the leather. It did get the job done though.

Next is the Camillus Seize which I paid $30 for at Walmart. It is a folding pocket knife with a 3” blade and thumb studs for single handed open. Unfolded the knife is 8” overall. It also includes a pocket clip and a lanyard hole. There is also a locking mechanism in place when the knife is completely unfolded and has to be undone before folding it back off. Finally, the handle is a nylon scaled grip. The Seize unlike the Trench locks its blade into place and has no trouble when striking a ferro rod and getting sparks. A very good carving knife for taking off big chunks of material and debarking. This knife was able to make tighter curls than the Trench as well.

Moving on to the Camillus Drop Point, the knife that got me into Camillus, which I found at Walmart for $10. This knife has a 4” blade and a rubber handle which makes for an excellent grip. Part of the spine is 90 degrees while part of it is beveled. This knife like the Seize, has a lanyard hole. You can also purchase this knife in black if the brown color is not for you. The Drop Point can cast spark with no problem whatsoever when striking a ferro rod. For woodworking purposes this knife took off large chunks of materials and debarked well, but due to its size it had difficulty making tighter curls. The Drop Point when used to baton a piece of wood about 1” in diameter did very well and there were no issues to report.

Here we have the Camillus Sin, $32 on Amazon.com. It is a tomahawk that
is 16” tall with a 4” blade. You will also notice the spiked edge. The handle is 18.5’ of 550 paracord wrapped. The circle behind the blade could be used for seize up, fleshing, or possibly even a draw knife. Find a place to strike the ferro rod on the Sin was a bit challenging, but when I found a place to strike it there were sparks made almost effortlessly. I did not try to do any fine woodworking tasks with the Sin for hopefully obvious reasons. When it came to processing larger pieces of wood, I simply used the tomahawk to chop unlike the knives which I used to baton the wood. With about a minute of work the Sin was able to separate a larger piece of wood about 4” in diameter.

For $30 at Walmart you could pick yourself up a Camillus Carnivore, a machete. The blade is 12” long which is good for a measuring tool. About 9-10” of it is a saw blade and above it is the gut hook. At the top it is chiseled and then flat which makes for an excellent digging tool. There is a plastic grip handle with a lanyard hole. The Carnivore is good for large woodworking tasks, but not good for fine details. With your purchase you will find a smaller knife, good for finer woodworking skills with notches on the blade for making it into a spear. There are two hexbolt wrenches, the smaller is 7mm while the larger is 9mm. When trying to strike the ferro rod I tested both the machete and the smaller knife. I struck against the bottom of the knife blade and the bottom of the machete below the teeth and got sparks off of both blades. I did not try to do fine woodworking with the machete, however I did give the smaller knife a go. It debarked well and struggled to take off larger chunks of material. It couldn’t really form a curl well, but I am will to give the benefit of the doubt that it is just out of the box and may need a profile touch up. Now, the gut hook on the Carnivore should be sharp enough to cut paracord if I needed it to. Unfortunately the gut hook on this product was not sharp enough to do that and barely broke the mantle on the cord. I chose to process larger pieces of wood with both the saw blade and the machete blade of the Carnivore. The saw itself did pretty well and worked perhaps even quicker than the Sin, however the effort was straining on my hand. When using the machete blade to chop it was much more inefficient than the Sin and would take longer to completely separate the wood.

Last but not least we have the Camillus Bushcraft, which my wonderful wife got me for $68 onAmazon.com. It has a 4” coated blade with the hump of a butcher knife. It is a full 90 degrees and full tang as well. The handle is canvas with a lanyard hole and makes for a very good grip. It stows away in a leather sheath with holes drilled all the way through it which you can use to tie the knife into it. The Bushcraft got sparks off the ferro rod, but I wasn’t too concerned with that due to the design of the knife. This knife performed the fine wood working tasks effortlessly. It took off large chunks of material, debarked, and formed tight curls with ease. For a larger wood working task I used the Bushcraft to baton a piece of would about 1” in diameter and had no problems with it whatsoever.

To wrap this up, I think we all can agree that these tools are all unique and have their own individual talents when it comes to certain tasks. I’m sure you’re wondering which one I would recommend taking with you, and as I’ve told you before, the tools you take with you are going to depend on what tasks you are trying to accomplish out in the bush. If you are looking to process large pieces of wood while you’re out, the Camillus Sin may be a good choice for you. The same if your pack has some canned goods stored away for you to eat. The Trench will be your friend come dinner time. As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. If video is more your thing, then check out my YouTube channel Backpack Bushcraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.